Stairway to Heaven
by Princess Lily
Summary: This is my l/j fic, formerly named Emerald Pools. Read and enjoy!
1. Chapter One - Beginnings

A/N: Here comes a L/J fic! No, it's not love/hate, there are too many out there! I think you'll be surprised… Written in James' pov.

P.S. I'm still working on Beyond Paradise…

*Emerald Pools*

Mother had insisted on not only renting a muggle car and driving me to King's Cross Station, she had also planted herself on the platform (despite my frantic pleas) directly in front of the car in which I was lounging, and was now waving energetically.

"Goodbye James, sweetheart! Have a nice time at Hogwarts!" She blew me yet another kiss. I groaned and slid down in my seat. Peeking over the bottom of the window, I saw that most of the normal parents were simply milling around the platform. Some were crying, some were ecstatic, some (the late ones) were quickly helping their children yank their trunks and belongings onto the train. As I scanned the platform, I saw one worried looking mother chastising her son, a pale boy with light brown hair who was leaning out of the window, looking tired. 

"You're quite sure you feel all right, Remus?" The boy rolled his eyes. 

"Mum, I'm fine. The train is about to leave."

"Remember our deal with Professor Dumbledore. If anything goes wrong, you must promise to go straight to him, all right?" 

"Yes Mum, I promise." He leaned out farther and his mother gave him a kiss on the cheek."

There was only one other mother waving frantically, a few cars down. 

"Goodbye, Sirius, darling!" she was calling, "You're quite sure you packed enough fresh underwear?" The poor boy thrust his head through the window. I could tell he was a first year, the same as I was. 

"Yeah, sure, goodbye Mum!" he yelled. My mother brushed her long black hair out of her face and looked with interest at her fellow energetic mother. She bounced over to the woman, who had shiny, deep brown hair and bright hazel eyes. 

"Hi, I'm Kathleen Potter. I couldn't help noticing that you are quite as excited to have your son attending Hogwarts as I am." The woman smiled at her.

"I'm Cassiopeia Black, Cass for short. Yes, I am quite thrilled to finally get Sirius out of the house. His poor teachers at Wizarding Primary, I just don't understand how they put up with him. Siri is quite a mischief-maker." My mother nodded.

"I completely understand! If I had a Galleon for every time I got a letter from school about James setting a prank, I'd be a millionaire." They carried on chatting in slightly loud voices and were starting to attract some strange looks. I sighed. Well, at least she wasn't waving anymore. The train's whistle blew and we started to pull away. My mother and Mrs. Black turned and waved, though with noticeably less energy. My mother getting a friend might have been the best thing that ever happened to me. That is, of course, until I met Lily. 

Lily was beautiful. Honestly. Like an angel from heaven. From the moment that she stepped timidly into my empty compartment, I knew that this pretty, sweet looking, red haired girl was the person that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. But of course, I didn't say this.

"Er, can I sit in here? Everywhere else is full." She smiled shyly at me, her bright green eyes shining. I nodded, motioning for her to sit across from me. I couldn't speak. 

"So, er, what's your name? I'm Lily Evans." I found my voice.

"I'm James. James Potter. Erm…" I scanned my brain for a talking point. Even her voice was beautiful. "So, er, what house do you think you'll be in? My father says I'm a sure Gryffindor." I instantly wished I hadn't said that, because Lily's startling eyes filled with tears.

"I… I don't know what you mean… Houses? I'm so confused, I don't belong here…" A tear rolled down her cheek. I moved over to sit next to her. Hesitatingly, I put an arm around her shoulder. 

"Please don't cry Lily." She turned and sobbed softly into my shoulder. "I suppose you're muggle born. Well, I'll tell you everything my parents have ever told me about Hogwarts." I explained how there were four houses, how you got sorted, how you went to classes and flying lessons, how there were ghosts and a poltergeist, and all about Quidditch. When I ran out of topics, I moved onto my life, and myself. I told Lily about how I loved playing pranks, how my father humored me and my mother scolded, how I'd never had a true friend who like me for a real, not just because I knew how to fly or because my family was wealthy. After a while, my voice was growing hoarse, but Lily had stopped crying and was now leaning against me, contented. She touched my arm.

"Now it's my turn to talk." She told me about how everyone had made fun of her at school, how she had no friends, how her older sister Petunia picked on her and had not spoken to her since Lily had found out that she was a witch. She rested her head on my shoulder.

"You know, James Potter, you're a real friend." We sat there for a minute. To our surprise, a pair of people burst into the room. I recognized them as Remus, the tired boy from the platform, and Sirius, the boy whose mother was now friends with mine. Sirius spoke. 

"Hey, we heard that we have some fellow firsties in here…" He trailed off at the sight of Lily, who had quickly pulled her head from my shoulder.

"I don't believe we've been introduced. Sirius Black, at your service." He bowed and kissed her hand. Shaking hands with Remus (who seemed really nice), I snickered at Sirius' expression. Lily wouldn't fall for that crap. Sirius looked up at me, his eyes narrowing. "What's wrong with you? Oh, I see now. Lost your fight with the lawnmower, huh Four Eyes?" He looked pointedly at my hair, smirking. I glared. He had touched a nerve. I stood up. 

"Ah, I remember you now. You're the boy with quite enough underwear, am I right?" I did an imitation of his mother. "Sirius daaaahling, are you quite positively sure that you've packed enough underwear? We wouldn't want your bed-wetting condition to get out of hand, now would we?" Sirius glared back and clenched his fists. I pulled out my wand. Having already mastered many spells, I was prepared for a full out duel. Sirius did also, but Remus pulled him by the back of the shirt through the door.

"Bye, Lily, James. See you." Lily shook her head and pulled out a book. 

"Boys." I was still glaring at the spot where Sirius had been.

"Jerk," I muttered, "And to think that I thought I would be friends with him." Lily punched me softly, not looking up from her book. I smiled and toyed with my wand, staring out of the window into the countryside that was speeding by.

*~*~*~*

"Firs' years! Firs' years, this way!" As Lily and I stepped off the train at the Hogsmeade Station, we were greeted by the sight of an enormous giant of a man calling over the heads of the excited sea of black-clad students. After a few minutes of struggling, we reached him.

"Hello, I'm Hagrid. Ah! You must be young James Potter. Look like you mother, you do." I pushed up my glasses and reached out my hand, Hagrid crushing it in a handshake. 

"Nice to meet you Hagrid, my parents have told me all about you. This is Lily Evans, she's a first year too." Hagrid smiled down at Lily, who was smiling shyly up at him.

"Hello Lily, it's nice to meet you. Pretty one, ain't you?" Lily blushed. 

"Well, we'd better be off then." Hagrid led the huddled group of first years down a dirt path. I suddenly felt shoved from behind. I turned and groaned. It was Sirius. Remus was with him, and another chubby boy that I recognized from Wizarding primary, Peter Pettigrew. Though it was a mild night, Remus shivered and pulled his cloak around his shoulders. I took off my own cloak and handed it to him. He wrapped it around his shoulders, giving me a thankful grin. Sirius ignored this and pushed his way next to Lily. 

"So, Lily, what House do you think you'll be in?" Lily grinned at him. I felt my temper rising.

"I hope I'm in Gryffindor, that sounds by far the best. Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad; I'm a bit of a bookworm. But really, I hope I'm in Gryffindor." She looked at me and smiled. I melted. Sirius spoke softly in her ear.

"I'm a definite Gryffindor. Your pal over there, I'll bet he's a Slytherin all the way." Lily moved away from him, leaning towards me.

"No, James is a Gryffindor." Sirius scoffed. She looked at him admonishingly. "You'll see."

*~*~*~*

The Sorting was nerve racking for me. As I stood in front of the entire school, waiting for my turn to try on the ragged hat, I remembered what my father had said before I left that morning.

__

"Remember, James, it's up to you to continue the family tradition of being placed in Gryffindor. Every Potter since the beginning of Hogwarts has been in Gryffindor. Don't let me down, son."

I grimaced slightly and looked at Lily, whose name would be called soon.

"Black, Sirius!" Sirius stepped up confidently, placing the hat on his head. It had barely touched him when it yelled "GRYFFINDOR!" I groaned. Great, now I would be stuck living with that dog for seven years. It was Lily's turn next.

"Evans, Lily!"

Shaking, she walked up to the three-legged stool and sat, placing the ancient hat over her head. Sirius gave her a thumbs-up from his new seat at the Gryffindor table. As everyone waited for it to make its decision, I gazed at Lily, or what I could see of her that wasn't hidden under the enormous hat. She had no expectations, no "family traditions" to live up to. How I wished I could be in her shoes. Finally, the hat spoke.

"GRYFFINDOR!" The Gryffindor table erupted with cheers, Sirius jumping up and down, catcalling. I resisted squeezed my eyes shut and forced a blank expression onto my face. Why did P have to come near the end of the alphabet? I watched as student after student passed and was sorted. The Gryffindors looked extremely triumphant as they walked to their new table. I watched as Remus Lupin and another boy named Peter Pettigrew were both sorted into Gryffindor. After what seemed like ages, it was my turn.

"Potter, James!" I stepped up to the stool, which now seemed to be a mile away. Finally, I reached it and pulled the hat on over my head. I caught a glance of Lily pushing Sirius' arm away from her shoulder just before the hat fell over my eyes. I smiled. The hat spoke to me, in a small voice.

"Well now, we have another Potter here." The hat seemed to be considering me. "Well, you have talent, no doubt about that. And flying skills, my goodness yes. Also a knack for getting into mischief, that's interesting. So where shall I put you?" I prayed with all my might.

__

Gryffindor, please, put me in Gryffindor! I'll do anything…The hat cut me off.

"All right, all right. But the one thing I want you to do? Try to get along with Mr. Black." I started to question the hat, but it shouted "GRYFFINDOR!" and cheers erupted from the crowd. I stood up shakily and walked over and sat next to Lily at the Gryffindor table. I ignored Sirius' gagging gestures as Lily squeezed my hand.

"I knew you could do it." We settled back in our chairs to watch the rest of the sorting. Another new Gryffindor who had been sorted just after me leaned over and whispered in Lily's ear. I cleared my throat, and Lily started.

"Oh, sorry James. This is Sarah Reeves, I knew her from primary school." Sarah smiled at me. She had thick, curly brown hair and dark brown, slightly Asian shaped eyes. 

"It's nice to meet you." Sirius scowled at her. 

"Sarah, don't talk to him. He's a freak." Sarah shot him a look.

"Sirius, don't be so rude!" He scowled again. "I mean it! And you're not my boss!" She shot him a glare, and his gaze softened. 

"I'm sorry Sarah. It's just HE makes me so mad." Sarah punched him lightly on the arm.

"It's all right, I forgive you. Just don't do it again!" Lily and I watched this interesting exchange in silence. When Sarah looked back at me, I spoke. 

"You know Sirius? But I thought you were muggle born…?" Sarah laughed at my look of surprise.

"I'm mixed. My mum is a muggle, she's the one who put me in Muggle primary. My dad works in the Ministry of Magic with Sirius' dad. They're Aurors." I took one look at Sarah and Sirius and could tell that they'd practically grown up together. I almost laughed at Sirius' mock-hurt expression as Sarah elbowed him, but then remembered that I hated him. Oh well. It could have been funny. I turned and watched as Professor McGonagall called one of the few remaining students' names.

"Snape, Severus!" Now there was an oily looking guy. Sirius, though he racked on my nerves, at least looked like someone who might be nice. This boy, Snape, had black, oily hair and a malicious expression fixed on his sallow face. Yucko. Slytherin for sure. Sure enough, the hat had barely touched his head when it screamed "SLYTHERIN!" His thin lips twisted into a smirk and he slithered over to the Slytherin table. A few students later, the Sorting was over and a magnificent feast had appeared before us. I helped myself to some roast beef and potatoes. Neither Lily nor I realized that we were still holding hands, under the table.

Disclaimer: Again, I don't own anyone except Sarah so far. Keep reading!


	2. Chapter Two - Friendships

After the feast, we were led to Gryffindor Tower. As I stood in the common room, ignoring the prefects' orders to go up to our dormitories, I could hardly believe it. I was at Hogwarts. I was a Gryffindor. Lily touched my arm.

"Goodnight James. I'll see you tomorrow." She hesitated. For a second, I thought she was going to kiss me. But then Sarah, who had seemed to pick up a few more first year friends, pulled her away.

"G'night James. You too, Siri." She led her dazed looking friend away. I turned and saw that Sirius was standing behind me. Ignoring his look of disgust, I made my way up the staircase to the boys' dormitories, accompanied by Remus, who took the liberty of dragging Sirius. He seemed to do that a lot. Pushing open the door marked "First Years", I stopped. Facing me was a beautiful circular room containing four poster beds with deep red velvet hangings. There was a large window on one side, which faced the grounds and Forbidden Forest. To my surprise, I saw that our trunks had been brought up to our rooms. I bounded in to the dormitory and immediately called the bed next to the window. Remus got the one on the other side of the window, next to mine, and Sirius called the one on the other side of his. There was one empty bed, next to mine, and I wondered who was left to come. A small, pudgy boy with sandy brown hair rushed through the doorway. I recognized him as Peter Pettigrew.

"Erm, is this the first year boy's dormitory?" he asked squeakily. Remus nodded. Peter looked relieved and collapsed on the bed. Immediately we heard loud snores begin to issue from his four poster. He was asleep. Remus, Sirius, and I shrugged at each other. Or, rather, Sirius and I shrugged at Remus and then glared at each other. Remembering the Sorting Hat's request, I softened my glare a bit. He turned away and I leaned back on my bed. Though I hadn't realized how exhausted I was, as soon as I placed my glasses on the bedside table, I fell into a deep slumber.

*~*~*~*

The next day, I woke up very wet. Sirius was standing above me, magically levitating a bucket of ice cold water upside down over my head. Not stopping to marvel at his skill or obvious talent considering that we had yet to have any lessons, I whipped on my glasses and grabbed my wand. Standing up, I took aim.

"Rictusempra!" Sirius doubled over in hysterical fits of laughter. He rolled onto the floor and I grabbed some clean robes out of my trunk and headed to the bathroom to shower, carefully treading on him as I passed. After I had washed and dressed, I stood in front of the mirror and tried to make my hair lie flat. The mirror, whose voice sounded much more weary than my own mirror's at home, wheezed "No offense, dear, but there's really no point." I glared at it and walked out, bumping into Peter on his way in. His face lit up when he saw me.

"Oh, hi James. Lovely day isn't it? How are you? Did you sleep well?" I looked at him quizzically. He sounded like a house elf.

"Er, hello Peter. I'm fine. You'd better hurry, classes start in half an hour." Peter's eyes widened. 

"Half an hour?" He ran past me. I shrugged and grabbed my books from my trunk, carefully placing them in my bag. Ten minutes later, I was down at breakfast. Lily walked in and sat down next to me. Once again, she looked beautiful. Her dark red hair was woven into two French-braided pigtails. Her robes, though the same plain black ones as everyone else was wearing, had been accented with green ribbons at the neck and cuffs which brought out the color of her eyes. I was in a trance. She came over and sat next to me, amid some difficulty. More girls, including Sarah, who I recognized from the evening before, accompanied her. She introduced me to them. Mary Thayer, a girl with long brown hair that was pulled back in a ponytail. She always seemed to be laughing and had a curious fascination with Japanese art. All during lunch she was sketching, until people started bugging her to draw them and she stopped, annoyed. Liz Appelgate, who had short brown hair and glasses. She was half Muggle, half magic, and was one of Sarah and Lily's friends from primary school. The last girl, Carrie Cavanaugh, was a tall, blonde, pretty Muggle born. She had been attracting many looks and whistles from the male population of the hall. She returned them with fiery glares. As she sat down, Sirius let out a small sigh under his breath.

"Did anyone ever tell you that you should be a model?" he asked, with a glazed look over his face. Carrie looked livid. She grabbed him by the front of his robes from across the table.

"Listen up, you narrow minded jerk!" she hissed. "I do not want to be a model! Get it through your thick skull! I am not a piece of meat!" She released him, smiled sweetly at the rest of us, and started on breakfast. "Ooh! Are those strawberries? I love strawberries! And bacon!" She grabbed the two dishes and served liberal amounts onto her plate. We watched in amazement as she wolfed down her breakfast and helped herself to more. Sarah and Liz shrugged. Sirius sat back, blushing furiously. Lily turned to me. 

"Yes, if you were wondering, she's always like that." I nodded.

"I wasn't going to ask." At that moment, the first year schedules were passed down the tables. I scanned mine. We had Charms first that day, then Potions, and Transfiguration just after lunch. That sounded interesting. A bell sounded and we headed off to Charms.

*~*~*~*

Charms passed in a blur. Lily and Sirius, paired together, were the first ones to manage a Levitation charm. I wasn't surprised about Sirius; I remembered the bucket earlier that morning. Lily, however, seemed to be a natural. One casual flick of her wand and the spell resulted in her feather flying four feet above her desk. Tiny Professor Flitwick scrambled over. 

"Everyone, Miss Evans has managed it!" he squealed. Lily, however, looked surprised and jerked her wand up, startled. The feather floated gently to rest on the top of the professor's hat. The class burst out laughing while Flitwick looked around wildly.

"What? What?"

Potions was an unqualified disaster. I found myself paired with the oily boy from the sorting, Snape. I also discovered that there was indeed someone at school who I disliked more than Sirius. Vowing to start out on the right foot, I offered him my hand to shake.

"How are you? I'm James Potter." The oily boy just looked at my hand with distaste and turned to his daisy roots and began slicing with a malicious air about him. I turned to Remus, who was paired with Sarah, and shrugged. The professor, Professor Lipnicka, called out in her raspy voice for us to add our ingredients to our potion. Snape "accidentally" knocked over my flask of dragon's blood into my bag. With a wave of my wand I cleaned it, but from then on, I decided to ignore him. He just wasn't worth the trouble.

We compared results of our first morning at lunch. I offered Sarah the platter of hamburgers, but she refused, looking queasy.

"No thanks, I'm vegetarian." She helped herself to avocado salad and chips. "So Lily, you really seemed to get the knack of Charms." Lily blushed.

"Yeah, I guess it just came to me." I smiled at her, and she relaxed.

"We better watch out, we've got McGonagall this afternoon." Mary frowned. "Everyone says she's really strict."

"I guess we'll find out, then."

*~*~*~*

Mary had been right, McGonagall was strict. The instant we reached her class, she gave us a stern talking-to. 

"Do not, under any circumstances, assume that just because you are in my house that I will give you extra leeway. Anyone messing around in here will leave and not come back. You have been warned."

I exchanged glances with Remus, and then Lily. The instant we had been given a match and been told to turn it into a needle, Peter dropped his wand. It let off a bang and blasted a hole through the door. McGonagall repaired it with a wave of her wand and immediately began chastising Peter, who was cowering in a corner. I turned to my needle. Doing as McGonagall had instructed, I raised my wand and envisioned the match pointy and shiny. Instantly, there was a small pop and the match was suddenly a sharp, silver needle. Professor McGonagall rushed over to my desk as I sat, staring at the needle in surprise. She gave me a rare smile and held up my needle so the class could see.

"Excellent work, Mr. Potter." I grinned at the awestruck class, putting my nonchalant aura back on. For a second, I had almost let my insecurity show. Lily smiled encouragingly at me, and I faltered. Though I had only known her for a couple days (had it only been that long?), Lily had seemed to have acquired the ability to see through my thoughts. Professor McGonagall turned away to help Peter, who was whacking his wand on the desk in anger. I turned and saw Sirius in between Liz and Mary, an arm around each of their shoulders. He kept making jokes and sent them off into hysterical fits of giggles, leaving them struggling to hold their wands up. Unfortunately for him, McGonagall spotted him.

"Mr. Black!" she said shrilly, "Have you begun work on you match yet?" Sirius shook his head defiantly, grinning. She strode over and pulled him away from Mary and Liz, who were trying to suppress another fit of giggles. McGonagall steered him to an empty desk and placed a match in front of him.

"Transfigure it. Now." The eyes of everyone in the class were on Sirius as he waved his wand impatiently. Nothing happened. The professor tapped her foot impatiently. 

"We're all waiting, Mr. Black." He waved again. Nothing. McGonagall gave him a stern glare as the rest of the class set back to work on their matches, uninterested. 

"10 points from Gryffindor. Stay after class so we can discuss the rest of your punishment."

*~*~*~*

A few days later, the Transfiguration professor stopped me in the hall.

"Potter, would you mind tutoring a student for me? He hasn't seemed to have gotten the hang of Transfiguration, and I'd like for you to help him." After a moment of haggling with her (involving many excuses), I agreed reluctantly. "Meet him in my classroom at 7 o'clock tonight."

That night, I left the common room at 6:50 for the empty Transfiguration classroom where I had arranged to meet the student. I lit the lamps and set up a few objects for the student to work on. As I waited for their arrival, I sat on a desk and impatiently drummed my fingers on it. How had I managed to get roped into this? I could have been sitting in the common room instead of sitting here, waiting for some pathetic guy who couldn't even turn a match into a needle- I cut off when I the student walked through the door. It was Sirius.

"YOU!" we said at the same time. I shook my head.

"No way, I'm not doing this!" I exclaimed in horror. "When McGonagall told me I'd be tutoring someone, I didn't know it'd be _you_."

"Hey, don't think I'm happy about this either!" Sirius snapped. I groaned.

"I can't believe this. There's no way I'm helping you." 

"No, you have to. McGonagall said she'd quiz me to make sure I actually learned something. It's not my fault I can't turn the stupid match into a needle."

"Okay, fine. But only until you get it!" I gave him a match. "Here. Have a go." He looked at me.

"I already tried this. Remember?"

"Just do it. I'll correct you. Now, try to envision the needle when you touch the match with your wand…"

***

An hour later, Sirius had mostly gotten the hang of Transfiguration. We had grown bored and decided to go through McGonagall's desk. We were now rifling through the drawers, looking for blackmail material or some other embarrassing objects or evidence.

"Man, she must be the most boring person alive!" I moaned. Sirius agreed.

"Yeah, all she has are quills, parchment, more quills, more parchment… Oh look! She owns some thumbtacks too! Whose bright idea was this?" I nudged him.

"Uh, yours?" He straightened up.

"Oh. I was afraid of that. Hey James, look at this!" He pointed to a file marked "Private". We grinned at each other. Just as Sirius pulled out a thick envelope from the folder, Professor McGonagall strode through the doorway.

"Are you finished in here? It's almost 11 o'clock- what in the name of Godric Gryffindor is going on here?!?" She saw Sirius and me crouched behind here desk. "Are you going through my personal belongings?" I shut the drawer quickly with a snap. Sirius tucked the envelope into the inside of his robes.

"Um, no?" McGonagall wasn't convinced. I stood, yanking Sirius up after me. We backed out of the room.

"We're done now. Goodnight!" We dashed off down the corridor, not seeing the professor shake her head and chuckle softly as we passed. Once we turned the corner, I skidded to a stop. We stopped to laugh at our own cunning. By the time we had reached the portrait hole, we were friends.

*~*~*~*

The next months passed in a blur. I became best friends with Sirius. We played pranks on virtually every member of our house and most of the other houses too. My infatuation with Lily grew steadily, and I often feared that she never saw me as more than a confidant. My closest friends were Sirius, Remus, Lily, and on occasion, Peter. I felt slightly sorry for him, he was relatively talentless and seemed to have no other friends. Sarah, Mary, Liz, and Carrie were the rest of our usual group. We provided a unified front against the Slytherins. It was a constant war. The only thing that had actually been bothering me was Remus' annual disappearances once a month. He insisted that his mother was ill. Sirius and I were skeptical, but we respected his personal privacy too much to question him further. By the time Christmas came around, I was ready for a break. We were all going home for the holidays. Riding back on the train was enjoyable.

"Sirius!" Mary shrieked, hysterical with laughter. "Stop it! I can't take it any more!" Sirius was doing an impression of Filch, the caretaker.

"What'd you say, missy?" he asked, in an uncanny impression of the wizened porter. "Come Mrs. Norris, my sweet. We'll catch Peeves if it's the last thing we do!" He was just bursting into an impression of some of Filch's threats when Snape and a group of Slytherins chose to saunter into the room. Instantly, the compartment grew silent as we all turned. Sirius stood up.

"No, Sirius, don't," Sarah whispered, "Just ignore them." He faced Snape. 

"Did you want something?" he hissed, "Or are you just going to stand there looking pretty?" Snape sneered. 

"Shut up, Black."

"Make me."

"I will." Putting down the Sugar Quill that I was sucking on, I stepped up between the two.

"Come on, Sirius, he isn't worth your time." I started to pull him away. Snape turned his cold glare onto me.

"Potter," he growled, "Care to face me in his place?" I ignored him, but Remus stood up next to me. Snape let out a menacing hiss. I rolled my eyes. God, was this becoming an ordeal. The three of us faced him, shoulder to shoulder. People at school had started calling us the Dream Team, while in secret and between our closest friends only we called ourselves the Marauders. I raised my wand and faced the malevolent-looking Slytherin who had become our rival and enemy. We bowed stiffly. Behind me, Lily raised her hand to her mouth in horror. Sarah was clutching Sirius' sleeve with one hand, the other hand balled into a fist. Peter was whimpering in fright. Carrie, Mary, and Liz were huddled together, scarcely daring to do anything but breathe and shoot fiery glares at the Slytherins. Snape's cronies sneered stonily at us. They looked as though they were at a slight loss for what to do, as if they were waiting for directions from their leader. It was I who shot the first curse.

"_Expelliarmus_!" I yelled, intending to disarm Snape and end the duel with as little conflict as possible. Instead however, Snape shot a fire-spell at me before his wand was jerked out of his fingers.

"_Acridious!"_ I leapt out of the way as the spell whizzed past me, only barely singeing the hem of my long black robes. It sped toward the back of the compartment, causing Liz to jump out of the way just in time with a small yelp. Sirius reached out and deftly caught Snape's wand. Lily let out a breath that she had been holding.

"Score- Gryffindor, one million, Slytherin, negative five." Sirius smirked. Snape, starting to turn, held out his hand for his wand, insufficiently suppressing a sneer. Sirius laughed and twirled it between his fingers. "Say it!" Snape rolled his eyes.

"Grow up, Black."

"Say it! Gryffindors rule, Slytherins drool…"

"Oh, all right… Gryffindors rule, Slytherins drool." We burst out laughing. Snape glared and snatched his wand out of Sirius' extended fist. He turned sharply on his heel and stalked back through the open compartment door. I could have sworn he whistled for his cronies to follow, and they did, like the obedient little demon-puppies that they were. I turned and smiled at Lily, who had fingernail marks on her face from where she had been clutching it. Sarah let out a vehement sigh and covered her eyes exasperatedly with one hand, rubbing her temples.

"You guys are going to be the death of us one day." Sirius smiled mischievously at her.

"Wait till we get back for the holidays! You're gonna see so much of me…" Sarah rolled her dark eyes and punched him on the shoulder.

"Don't be such a guy."

"Why, would you rather I was a cross-dresser? I could change my name to Sunny and wear that lace top of Lily's…" This time, Lily reached up and whacked him sharply on the back of the head. He just laughed.

*~*~*~*

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the recognizable characters, places, or anything! Oh yeah, Sunny is a real cross-dresser who goes to my school….


	3. Chapter Three - Christmas Holidays

The rest of the train ride passed in a blur. We played numerous games of Exploding Snap, and Sirius let off some Filibuster's Fireworks that his cousin had sent him a few weeks before. Before we knew it, we had reached the station. Sirius let off his last firework and it engulfed all of us in smoke and red/gold sparkles. As the smoke cleared, I saw mine and Sirius' mothers chatting away on the platform. I turned and yanked out my duffel bag, which was full of dirty laundry and spellbooks. The nine of us lugged our belongings out to the platform. Remus' mother was tapping her foot anxiously.

"Remus! Welcome back, darling! Are you feeling alright?" Remus rolled his eyes.

"Yes, Mother. Bye everyone." We all waved as his mother ushered him off the platform.

"Strange," I said in an undertone to Sirius, "I thought his mother was ill? Isn't that why he's been going home once a month to visit her?" Sirius shrugged.

"Maybe she got better? I dunno." Lily and Carrie headed for the barrier leading to the main station, where their families were waiting.

"Bye James, Sirius, Sarah, Liz!" Carrie called. Lily squeezed my hand.

"Bye. See you after break," I whispered to her. She smiled and, turning furtively to make sure that no one was looking, gave me a small peck on the cheek. 

"Bye." She and Carrie hurried off towards the gateway. Liz's father strode over. 

"Hi honey. Did you have a nice term?" He kissed her on the cheek.

"Yes Dad."

"Well, your mother and Kevin are waiting outside the barrier." Liz nodded.

"Alright. Bye guys, see you in a few weeks!" Sarah rolled her eyes. 

"Oh, god. Here comes my mother." Sarah's mother hurried over, looking excited. She had a hyper, monkey-looking little boy in tow.

"Hi! I'm Sarah's mom. Oh Sirius, you're here too. Have a nice term?" Sirius smiled. "Yeah, Mrs. Reeves. I only got ten detentions!" Sarah's mother looked indignant.

"Goodness! If Sarah ever got any detentions, I don't know what I'd do…" Sarah grinned wickedly.

"So I guess this wouldn't be a good time to bring up the note from Professor McGonagall?" Mrs. Reeves looked shocked. Seeing the angry look on her mother's face, Sarah quickly changed the topic.

"Ma, why'd you have to bring the Freak anyway? And how'd you get on to the platform? I thought Muggles couldn't get on…"

"Don't you dare call your brother that! Jeffrey's highly intelligent. And you know your father, he rigged up some contraption to let me on to greet you. Goodness knows how he gets any work done… " Sirius raised his eyebrows at the hyper child, who had his arms wrapped around his waist.

"My Sirius! Mine mine mine mine mine!" Sarah flicked the small boy's overlarge ear.

"Cut it out." Mrs. Reeves then spotted Sirius' mother. 

"Cass! Hi!" Mrs. Black turned.

"Hello Anne! Care to join us?" Sarah's mother trotted over, and immediately began chatting away with the other two. Jeffrey hopped off to find someone else to bug. 

"My family is crazy," groaned Sarah. The three of us slid down and sat with our backs against the cold stone wall. I pulled some Drooble's Best Blowing Gum from the pocket of my Muggle-style coat and we chewed it in silence, watching the multicoloured bubbles float to the ceiling.

*~*~*~*

Somehow, being home for Christmas was both relaxing and exhausting at the same time. My hometown, Godric's Hollow, is about half-Magical, half muggle. Things are basically pretty quiet; people there like to keep to themselves. I was an only child, and I suppose I was slightly spoiled; I wouldn't know, having never really thought too much about it. My father was the head of the Department of Magical Catastrophes in the Ministry of Magic, so we had a fairly large home. I wouldn't go so far as to call my family extravagantly wealthy, but we did have an extremely comfortable lifestyle. Not until I was a young adult did I realize how much my parents loved me and wanted me to live up to everything that I was capable of. When I got home from King's Cross (I had practically dragged my mother away from Mrs. Black), I found our high-ceilinged foyer draped gracefully in garlands, tinsel, and sprigs of holly. My mother had obviously worked for hours to decorate the house "in the Muggle way". Once a year she thought it would be fun to decorate for the holidays like a muggle, though the event always ended in her extreme frustration and a few well chosen spells that decorated our large home in an instant.

"James, honey, take your bag up to your room and then you can come down and play some Quidditch with your father. He's been really excited. He said something about a new move…" She grinned as I rushed up the spiraling staircase and threw my bag onto my huge four poster bed. My room overlooked the meadow behind our house where my father was swooping around on his broomstick. I grabbed my Nimbus 1000 from the wardrobe and dashed back downstairs. I grabbed half a sandwich from the platter on the kitchen table and wolfed it down as I jogged out to meet my father, who flew down and landed next to me. 

"Hello son! I trust you had a good term?" he boomed. I grinned at my father. I had inherited his messy black hair and dark brown eyes. My father, however, was muscular and already was an inch or two shorter than me. I was tall and skinny, taking after my mother. 

"Yeah, Dad. But I don't think Mum was too pleased with the detentions…"

"Ah… Don't worry about it, James. I was just like you when I was your age." He opened a box lying on the ground and pulled out the Quaffle. "Want to have a catch?" I grinned even wider and mounted my broom. I was glad that my father hadn't made a big deal about the detentions; I had gotten a huge lecture from my mother on the way back about always following the rules. What else would you expect? When she and my father were at Hogwarts she had been a prefect. Once in the air, my father tossed me the Quaffle. As the ball soared towards me, I soared up and caught it deftly with one hand. This was where I belonged, on a broomstick. Everyone always told me that I was a natural Chaser; I don't know if that was true. All I knew was that when I was flying, all of my problems seemed to melt away. I could focus on the game, on the endless sky above me. My father and I swooped and soared, tossing the large Quaffle back and forth as the colours of the wintry sky turned from blue to orange and pink to deep purple. Finally, we swooped back down to the meadow and leaned back to watch the stars emerge from the dusk. The lights of Godric's Hollow were beginning to shine, and my mother was calling us in for dinner.

"James! Edward! Dinner…" We stood up and walked in silence back to our brightly lit dining room, where my mother was waiting with roast chicken and potatoes. 

*~*~*~*

The next day, I noticed a bit of a drag on the tail end of my broom. I was out alone soaring above the countryside. My parents were out Christmas shopping and had insisted that I stay at home or I would "ruin the surprise". I was looking forward to the next day when Sirius was coming to stay for a few days. I felt my Nimbus 1000 starting to lag. It also appeared to be taking turns slower. Confused, I slowly started to swoop towards the ground. I was about 40 feet above the meadow when the broom gave a sharp jerk. Caught by surprise, I tumbled sideways, only barely able to hang on. Hanging by both arms from the handle, I looked down at the ground. My broom was shuddering in short spasms. I felt my fingers slip on the slick broom handle. My arms, exhausted from holding my weight, were sore and aching. As my broom gave one final shudder, it fell out of the air. I let out a yell as I tumbled towards the ground, which was rushing up to meet me at an alarming speed. Then I hit the ground with a crunch, and everything went black.

"James? James, sweetheart, please wake up! James…"

From somewhere in the black void of my unconsciousness I heard my mother's voice pleading, wrought with worry. I struggled to reach out to her, but my arms felt too heavy. With immense effort, I wrenched my eyes open. Squinting from the bright light and the fact that someone had removed my glasses, I saw my mother perched anxiously in a chair beside my bed. My father was standing with his arms crossed at the doorway, in deep discussion with a very professional-looking wizard who was clad in white robes and had a stethoscope hanging around his neck. My mother had her face buried in her hands.

"Mum?" I croaked hoarsely. She lifted her head.

"James! Oh James, you're awake!" She threw her arms around my shoulders, and I winced. 

"Ouch." My whole body was as sore as if it had been beaten. She straightened up.

"Sorry, sweetheart. That must have been a nasty fall that you took." I was confused. 

"How long have I been unconscious? The last thing I remember after my broom acting up was falling off my broom…" My father nodded at the mediwizard and strode to my other side.

"You've been out for about two days, James. Your mother and I came home to find an empty house. Figuring that you were out flying, we went to the meadow to look for you. When we found you, you were unconscious." 

"You say that your broom was acting up?" My mother's voice sounded hoarse, as if she had been crying. 

"Yeah," I paused, remembering, "I was flying along, when it started to shudder and jerk around. I sort of slipped sideways and ended up hanging by my arms from the handle. Then the broom gave out and I fell. That's all I remember." My mother let out a muffled gasp. I suddenly realized that my left leg seemed stiffer and was aching more than the rest of my body. I looked down and saw my leg encased in a thick white cast, the kind that Muggles wore when they broke a bone. 

"Why am I wearing this?" My parents looked at each other.

"Well, James… when you fell you broke your leg in quite a few places." I shrugged.

"So? Couldn't anyone heal it?" My parents looked at me and didn't say anything. "Mum?" My mother worked part time as a nurse at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. During my whole life up until then, I had never known her to be incapable of healing any of my scrapes and injuries. My mother patted my shoulder.

"Darling, we didn't want to take the risk that it might harm you further. But don't worry, you only need to wear the cast for 5 weeks or so. I'm sure that Madam Pomfrey will remove it for you back at school." I stared. Me, having to wear a Muggle cast for 3 weeks at school? The taunts would be endless! I groaned and squeezed my eyes shut. Could this get any worse? Apparently it could. I heard a familiar sarcastic voice come through the doorway.

"So Jamsie, I hear you fell off your broom." I groaned again, halfheartedly, but I opened my eyes. It was Sirius, leaning against the doorframe, smirking. I grinned at him.

"Hey, it wasn't my fault! My broom bucked me off!" Sirius grinned back.

"Sure. Say, are you gonna have to wear that cast-thing for a long time? This might put a serious damper on our plans for the Slytherins…" He trailed off as he saw my mother raising her eyebrows at him. Before she could say anything, my father spoke.

"Say, Sirius, would you like to sign James' cast?" He produced several permanent markers. Sirius looked intrigued.

"You can sign it? The things Muggles come up with…" He immediately bent over and began scrawling on my cast. As my mother realized what he was writing, she let out an exasperated "Sirius!" and he smirked up at her.

*~*~*~*

The rest of my holidays were quite uneventful. My mother had forbidden me to go flying ("In your condition? I should think not!"), and Sirius had been sent home by my extremely worn out parents after catching us sneaking out every night that he had stayed. Christmas, however, was the bright spot on the horizon of my break. I awoke early to the sounds of my mother playing a disk of Christmas carols. Hobbling downstairs with my crutches, I saw my mother perched next to our enormous evergreen tree. 

"Merry Christmas, sweetie!" She rushed over to help me to a chair. I rolled my eyes.

"Mum, I'm perfectly capable of-" My father chose this moment to come downstairs.

"What on earth are you two arguing about this early on Christmas Day?" He looked at our faces. "Never mind, I don't want to know." He passed a present to me where I was seated next to the fireplace. "Here, James. This is from your mother." I unwrapped a thick red and gold sweater. Passing my parents their gifts from me, which I had purchased in Diagon Alley earlier that week, I turned to the rest of my presents. After a few minutes, I had a pile of items lying beside me. A lunarscope, which would come in handy during Astronomy, a brand-new peacock feather quill, a handbook of Quidditch maneuvers, a handsome new set of Gobstones, some clothes, and various other presents. Finally I turned to my last present, a long, flat package. It was wrapped in silvery paper. Slowly, I pulled off the wrappings. There in my hands lay the newest model of broomstick out on the market, the Stratus 500. I gasped in spite of myself, causing my parents to turn from their own gifts. My father grinned. 

"Do you like it? It's the newest model out. Just came into Quality Quidditch Supplies this week." My mother shot him a Look.

"Edward! The last thing James needs is more encouragement to fly! And after what happened to him…" My father smiled.

"Don't worry, Kathleen, he'll be fine." I smiled broadly and hugged my parents. 

"Thanks loads for all the presents." My mother ruffled my hair. 

"Just glad that you're happy, dear."

*~*~*~*

Sirius and Remus were extremely jealous when I told them about my new broom on the train back to Hogwarts.

"Aw, no fair!" exclaimed Sirius. "I begged my father for 2 hours straight, but he still held out with his 'You have a perfectly good broom' excuse." Remus sighed.

"I don't expect that my mother would ever even let me _near_ one of those." Sarah skidded into the compartment, closely followed by Peter. She turned, yanked him in, and slammed the door, leaning with her back against it to keep it closed. Sirius looked up quickly. 

"Sarah? What's wrong?" 

"Slytherins- in the corridor- caught them trying- trying to attack- to attack Peter…" she panted. Sure enough there were several sharp raps on the door. Lily, Carrie, and Liz looked up from their seats.

"Pettigrew! Reeves! We know you're in there. Come out quietly and no one gets hurt!" I recognized Snape's oily voice. Sarah looked livid.

"Shove it up your &%#, Snape!" she growled. I noticed that Sirius was growing very tense in his seat next to me. He was clenching and unclenching his fists. The door wobbled as Snape and some other Slytherins tried to force their way in. Sarah leapt away suddenly, and they fell through the doorframe. Sirius stood up as Snape fought to untangle his head from one of the other Slytherins' robes.

"Back off, Snape," he hissed. "Unless you want this to get very ugly." Snape narrowed his eyes.

"What's it to you, Black? Don't think your little girlfriend can take care of her poor ickle self?" Sarah turned slightly pink, but Sirius raised his wand.

"Get out. Now. Unless you'd like to see what it'd feel like to spend 20 years as a snail." Snape smirked.

"You don't know human Transfiguration yet, Black." Sirius smirked back at him.

"Care to find out?" Snape sneered, but backed out of our compartment. 

"This isn't over, Black." Just as he left, Mary walked in. Shoving past the Slytherins, she looked around at the tense expressions on the faces of the occupants of our compartment.

"Anything the matter?" Sirius looked at me.

"You explain."

*~*~*~*

In the following weeks, I discovered something. It is not easy to make your way around a magical castle in a cast with crutches. I fell into trick steps more than a few times, and seemed to be late for almost every class. My predicament was attracting many sympathetic looks, though I refused to explain exactly why I was wearing a cast. Madam Pomfrey insisted on checking up on me once a week. Finally, right before Valentine's Day, she announced I could finally have it removed. I was relieved. Hobbling around for the past five weeks had been quite exhausting. I ran all the way back to the common room, glad to be free of the heavy plaster around my leg. When she saw me, Lily ran up and hugged me.

"Oh James! You got it off!" I grinned at her.

"Yeah. Now I can go back to pranking the Slytherins in peace." Sirius slapped me a high-five.

"Yes! We're back in action!"

Valentine's Day came in a flurry of snow. It was a Saturday, so everyone was free to do what he or she liked. Most everyone in our group had a Valentine. Mine, of course, was Lily, who had accepted the long-stemmed red rose that I had given her, blushing furiously (Hagrid had given me one from his garden). Carrie had finally found a guy at Hogwarts who, unlike the rest of the majority of the male population, did not wolf whistle as she passed or make any degrading comments. Patrick McConahey was another first year Gryffindor. He was tall, had sandy brown hair and deep hazel eyes, and slept in the same dormitory as Sirius, Remus, Peter, and me. Carrie was constantly talking about him, harping proudly about how "pretty" he was, how smart he was (he and Remus often worked together on assignments), and how he defended her against the "chauvinist pigs" that were the rest of the male population. (The other boys protested that he was only defending her because he was going out with her, and that he secretly agreed with them. Patrick and Carrie, however, ignored their comments.) Liz had been spending a lot of time with a dark haired Ravenclaw named Alexander McKinnon who was in the same History of Magic class with us. Mary was going with another Ravenclaw named Robert Bell, a Muggle-born who shared her fascination with Japanese artwork. Sirius and Sarah, though they themselves couldn't quite see it, were already an item. There was hardly a night when they could not be seen sitting squished into the same armchair by the fire, copying off each other's History of Magic essays. Both firmly insisted that they were only friends. After one of such announcements, Lily turned to me.

"I give it one week before they're together." Sure enough, that night Sirius pulled Sarah into an empty corner of the common room. I watched them out of the corner of my vision. Sirius seemed to be very uncomfortable. He asked Sarah something, who then stared at him for a moment in disbelief. Suddenly, she threw her arms around his shoulders. He grinned awkwardly as she rushed over to where Lily and Carrie were seated at a table. At her news, they all squealed and ran over to Mary and Liz. All five burst out giggling and looked over at Sirius, who was striding towards me.

"So,' I asked him, grinning. "What'd you ask her?"

"I, er, asked her if she'd like to go out with me,' he mumbled. I grinned even wider.

"Hey Remus! It looks like you owe me five Sickles! They're together!" He turned.

"Finally! I was beginning to think you were too scared to ask her out, Sirius. Damn! Now only Peter and me are single…" Sirius turned crimson, but smiled.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the recognizable characters, places, events, etc.

A/N: Don't ask me what the point of James breaking his leg was… I just felt like it. Oh yeah…. Sirius is mine!


	4. Remus' Secret

*~*~*~*

"What'd you think of that pop quiz in Transfiguration today?"

"That was rough. McGonagall is a complete witch, no joke intended. But you didn't seem to have such a hard time. But then, of course, you're a ::cough:: 'complete natural at Transfiguration'" I laughed, as Sirius was doing an uncanny impression of our severe Transfiguration professor. We were lounging in the common room, having just finished our homework. The girls were up in their dormitory, experimenting with the new makeup kit that Lily had been sent as a birthday present from her parents. Just after she had unwrapped the package, a chase had ensued. Lily, Sarah, Mary, Liz, and Carrie had chased Sirius and me around the common room, brandishing lipsticks and such. ("Come on! Please? We promise, it won't hurt a bit!") Sirius and I had narrowly escaped up the staircase to the boy's dormitories, and the girls had finally grown bored and retreated up to their dormitory to give each other 'makeovers'. Anyway, we decided to actually settle down and finish our homework. I glanced out of the large window on one side of the cozy, circular room. There was a full moon just beginning to rise over the treetops of the forbidden forest. Remus had rushed out of the common room earlier that evening, as he did every month. Sirius and I, as always, had been curious to where our friend was going. Just like clockwork, Remus proceeded to disappear once a month, every month. He claimed that his mother was ill, and that he had to go home to visit her. This story had pacified us, at least up until we had witnessed his mother picking him up from the Hogwarts Express during the Christmas holidays, in seemingly perfect health. I continued to gaze pensively at the moon, which was continuing to rise slowly into the dark sky. 

"James?" I tore my gaze away from the moon and looked at Sirius, who was also gazing thoughtfully at the sky. "Last month, when Remus left, wasn't it a full moon then also?" I struggled to remember.

"Yes, I suppose it was. What are you getting at?" Sirius glanced back out the window.

"And the month before that, it was also the full moon, if I remember correctly…" I stared at my friend, not quite sure what he was implying.

"Are you saying that you think the two things might be linked? The full moon and Remus' disappearances?" Sirius looked at me and said nothing. "Then what would that mean? It's just a coincidence…" Sirius gave one last look out at the pale white orb hanging in the night sky.

"I guess you're right… We should go to bed, it's late." He stood up and made his way towards our staircase. I got up to follow him. A solitary wolf howled in the distance. 

*~*~*~*

A couple days later Remus returned to classes, looking as pale and unwell as usual. He arrived just as the post owls were swooping in at breakfast. Sirius elbowed me discreetly as our friend took his customary seat across from us at the table. Sarah looked up from her toast.
    "Remus! You're back!" At her exclamation, the rest of the girls turned. Lily smiled at him.
"Is everything alright? How's your mother?" She frowned slightly at his pallor appearance, but said nothing. We had all given up on asking him why he always looked so ill when returning from his monthly "visits to his mother". I remembered the conversation that Sirius and I had had a few nights before. Remus plucked a muffin from the plate in front of him.
    "My mother is still ill, I'm afraid." Peter squinted at him.
"She sure seems to have been sick for a long time." Sirius nudged him. The bell rang, signaling the start of classes.
    "We'd better go," said Carrie, shooting a furtive glance at Remus, "We've got Defense against the Dark Arts first." She grimaced. Professor Andrews, our only slightly vindictive DADA professor, had said in the last class that anyone late this time would get an immediate detention. We stood up and walked in our customary mob to our classroom.

*~*~*~* 

    "Ahem. Ahem! Class has started, take your seats… Thank you." We scrambled to our desks as Professor Andrews began his lesson for the day. "Today we will be continuing our study of magical creatures. We will be studying…" He checked his notes, "Werewolves." I barely noticed as Remus gave an involuntary twitch beside me. "I will be instructing you on how to recognize a werewolf, and also…" He shot a covert, almost loathsome look at Remus, "How to kill one." Remus looked down at his desk as the rest of the class scrambled for textbooks, quills, and parchment. I failed to recognize my friend's discomfort, however, as I filled my quill with ink, prepared to take the extensive notes that our malicious professor required. He launched into his spiel. 
"The werewolf differs from the regular wolf in many ways. Can anyone tell me what one of these ways are?" He shot a glance around the classroom. No one dared to move an inch, lest the professor's infamous temper inflame. "Lupin? Name a way in which a _werewolf-_" he sneered a bit, as if simply saying the word revolted him, "differs from a normal wolf." Remus shifted uncomfortably.
    "Er… the snout of the werewolf is longer and more pointed than that of the common wolf..." The professor raised his eyebrows, but moved on.
    "The werewolf, when transformed, differs from the common wolf in many ways. The upper canine teeth and claws are longer and sharper, making it easier for the werewolf to hunt and kill its prey. Also, the ears are…" He droned on and on. Still scribbling notes on my parchment, I turned to Remus.
"That was kind of harsh," I hissed under my breath. Remus looked up and gave me a small smile. "Why d'you think he picked on you, anyway? He always seems to do that." Remus failed to meet my gaze.
    "I- I don't know. Maybe he just doesn't like me?" I shrugged, but turned quickly as the professor turned.
"Potter! I will tolerate no talking in my class!" I apologized.
    "Sorry sir, won't happen again." He cleared his throat.
"See that it doesn't. As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, there is only one way to kill a werewolf. This would be to shoot a silver bullet through its heart. The hide of the werewolf is very tough, and cannot be penetrated by most curses. A werewolf only transforms under the full moon, once a month…" The bell finally rang to signal the end of class. "Your homework is to write me a twelve inch long essay on how you can recognize a werewolf, due at our next lesson. You are dismissed." There were quiet groans of protest at our immense load of homework, but Professor Andrews was already snapping his book shut and retreating back into his office. Eager to be out of the dreary classroom, we departed as quickly as possible.

*~*~*~* 

"Gaah…" I groaned, as Lily came over and perched on the arm of my chair. I had been working on my werewolf essay for over half an hour, and had still only gotten six inches finished. There seemed to be only barely enough information to cover the topic. Sirius was off somewhere with Sarah, presumably doing homework, though we suspected otherwise. Remus was lounging in front of the fire with a book, having already finished his own essay.
At this, something sparked in my mind. Of course, it was so simple… The reason that Remus was always absent on the full moon, the reason that he always looked so ill after returning... With a jolt, I remembered the howl a few nights before. Remus was a werewolf. I gripped the arms of my chair, surprised that I hadn't realized it of sooner. Lily put her arm on my shoulder.
    "James? What's wrong?" I looked up at her. Could I trust Lily? Obviously, Remus didn't want anyone to know. I considered it for a moment. As much as I wanted to tell Lily, I felt that I should ask Remus about it first. I resolved to ask him within the next few days, and turned back to Lily.
"Er…nothing's wrong, I was just thinking about how mean Professor Andrews has been lately."
    "Yeah, and how he kept picking on Remus today? Harsh." She smiled at me. "It's okay. We only have to deal with him for… er… six more years…" I laughed, though the thought of having class once a week for the next six years with the vindictive professor frankly sickened me. I noticed Remus standing up and heading for the dormitory staircase. I yawned widely and stood. "I guess I'll go up to bed now. 'Night, Lily." I gathered my stuff and followed my friend up the staircase. Once we reached our room, I dumped my belongings on my trunk, clearing my throat.
"Remus?" He was lying on his stomach in front of his bed, fishing underneath for one of his sneakers.
    "James?" His voice was slightly muffled.
"Er… I was wondering if I could ask you something." I felt awkward.
    "Okay, shoot."
    "Um…" I decided to just out and say it. "Remus, are you a werewolf?" He jumped, slamming the back of his head on the bottom of his bed. He rolled out from under his four-poster, rubbing his head. He looked up at me. I found it hard to read his expression. There was a mixture of fear and surprise written across his face.
"Wh- what makes you think that?" he stammered, his light brown eyes wide.
    "Well for one thing, you're always away at the full moon. You said your mother was ill, but then she came to pick you up from the train…"
"And you're always ill when you come back," said a voice from the doorway. Both Remus and I spun around. Sirius. He was characteristically leaning against the doorframe, his eyebrows raised. "Well don't look so surprised. Did you think Jamsie here was the only one who could figure something out? It is true, isn't it? You _are_ a werewolf, aren't you?" Remus looked down at the floor. I kneeled down beside him.
    "Come on, we won't tell anyone." Slowly but deliberately, he nodded. Sirius closed the door. Remus straightened up and began stuffing his things into his trunk. I exchanged a confused glance with Sirius.
"Remus? What are you doing?" He didn't look up. 
    "I'm leaving. Now that you know, you probably won't want to be-" Sirius cut him off.
"What? That we wouldn't want to be friends with you? Over a little thing like that?" Remus looked up. Sirius grinned at him. "Honestly, Moony, did you think we were that shallow? Hey… Moony. I like the sound of that." Remus gave us a small grin.
    "Well, whenever I told anyone before, they always ditched me. People don't like werewolves."
"Yeah, well, at least not when they're werewolves, anyway." I grinned at Remus. A sudden rustling in a nearby bed made us all jump. Sirius stalked over and threw back the covers. It was Peter, curled up into a ball, quivering slightly.
    "You! Have you been eavesdropping on us?" He glared at the pudgy boy. Peter sat up slowly. 
"I- I'm sorry, I was in here when James and Remus came in, and I didn't want to come out while they were talking because they'd be angry with me…" He looked shakily around at me and Remus.
    "Well, I guess you're part of the gang now, Peter. Welcome aboard." I shrugged at Sirius, who was looking irate. "Well, what else do you propose we do? He knows about Remus, and he could slip and accidentally tell someone… It's better that he's in on in." Sirius scowled. 
"I suppose so. Now what'll we do about this werewolf problem? We certainly can't let this put a damper on our activities…" At that moment, Patrick and Aidan, the other two boys in our dormitory, chose to come bursting in for bed.
    "Hey, it's a party!" Patrick grinned around at the four of us standing around in a circle. "What have you guys been doing up here?" We shrugged simultaneously. 
"We haven't been doing nothing," said Peter.
    "We haven't been doing _anything_," corrected Remus automatically. We all turned to him exasperatedly.
"Thank you, Professor Lupin!"
    
    *~*~*~*
The next weeks passed in a blur. Sometime after the Easter holidays, I was working on a research report for Transfiguration. Skimming a textbook looking for a topic, I came across a something that made my heart skip a beat. The perfect plan for how we could be with Remus when he was a werewolf. I snatched the book and ran over to show my idea to Remus and Sirius.
    "Perfect…" breathed Sirius, his voice barely above a whisper. "Absolutely perfect…" Remus, however, was the voice of reason.
"This will take forever," he said rationally. "Look, it says the potion itself needs to simmer for 1095 days. That equals out to…" he did some quick calculation in his head, "Three years! The potion needs to simmer for three _years_. And it says the incantation is hugely difficult…" Sirius and I, however, were grinning at each other manically. Peter chose this moment to come over and investigate what we were so excited about. He looked down at the page as Remus shook his head in despair.
    "Animagi?"
    
*~*~*~*
    A/N: Geez, this fic is turning out to be much longer than I expected. Oh well, that's okay. Thanks for all your nice reviews, I haven't gotten one flame yet!
    Disclaimer: All recognizable people, places, things, etc. belong to J.K. Rowling.


	5. End-of-Year Antics

A/N: Hey, can anyone guess where the title for this fic came from? If you think you know, e-mail me the answer! The first couple people to reply might get parts in a coming chapter! Happy reading! (p.s. Sorry this part is so short, I promise the next part will be MUCH longer!)

*~*~*~* 

In the last few months of school before the summer holidays virtually all of our free time was spent in the library poring over large, heavy spellbooks and crinkled old documents about Animagi. We had found the recipe for the Animagus potion that was needed to initialize the spell and decided to start work on it right away, as it needed to simmer for exactly three years. We had taken to rifling through Professor Lipnicka's private stores of potion ingredients during mealtimes and after lights-out, as only a few of the ingredients that we needed were directly accessible to students. This resulted in many near misses with both the teachers and Filch. Late one sultry night in early May, Sirius, Remus and I were creeping down to the dungeons (we had been unable to wake Peter, which was just as well because he tended to get into the way) to "borrow" some more boomslang skin. We slipped through the Entrance Hall and had almost reached the sloping passageway that led to the dungeons when we heard a familiar, raspy voice getting nearer. Filch! We froze. Thinking fast, I dragged my friends towards a door off to the side of the hall. We rushed in and quickly closed the door. An interesting sight reached our eyes. We had stumbled in on a very busy looking Carrie and Patrick, neither of whom noticed our sudden intrusion. Remus turned bright red, and I quickly looked away. Sirius, however, cleared his throat.

"Ahem, are we interrupting something?" Carrie gave a surprised yelp and pulled her face away from Patrick's, looking flushed. They looked guiltily up at us.

"Erm, fancy meeting you here?" said Patrick, grinning awkwardly. Sirius mock-tutted.

"Now, children, this is not proper behavior for a school setting." Carrie snorted.

"Oh yeah, you're one to talk, with you and Sarah disappearing every other night for hours on end! Hmm, wonder what you've been doing?" Now it was Sirius' turn to redden. I put my ear against the door.

"I think Filch is gone now. Come on, we don't have any time to waste. See you." Carrie looked up curiously.

"What's so important that you have to sneak around the school at night to do it?" But we were already out the door. Patrick and Carrie shrugged and returned to what they had been doing before they had been interrupted.

*~*~*~*

"James? James?" I twitched as I felt Lily poke my shoulder.

"Five more minutes," I mumbled. She poked harder. 

"James!" I jerked my eyes open and sat up abruptly. I had fallen asleep in the Great Hall, my head resting on my breakfast plate. Lily raised her eyebrows and picked a piece of fried egg out of my hair. "What's up with you?" I shrugged.

"I guess I'm just tired." She raised her eyebrows even higher.

"You must be, with all that late-night sneaking around that you, Sirius, and Remus have been doing." I stared. "Don't look so surprised. You three make quite a racket, clomping down the dormitory staircase. I'm surprised you don't wake the whole house up." The bell rang. I groaned as Lily jumped up and dragged me off to History of Magic.

I looked over sleepily at Remus, who was absentmindedly doodling on a scrap of parchment. Professor Binns was droning on about Magical Catastrophes of the 17th century or something equally dull. Sirius and Sarah were in a far corner of the room. Nudging Remus, we turned to glance at them.

"Think they ever come up for air?" I shrugged and looked over at Lily, who was gazing out of the window with her eyes half open, humming some Muggle song under her breath. Remus balled up his parchment. 

"Watch this." He aimed and threw the ball at Sirius and Sarah, who sprang up, looking stunned.

"What?" They noticed me and Remus cracking up, and decided to retaliate. After a few minutes we were in the middle of a full-fledged war. Peter was hovering anxiously on the side, trying to get in. I ducked as Sirius sent his Charms book whizzing over my head. People sprang out of the way as it hurtled past them, finally flying through professor Binns and hitting the wall on the far side of the classroom. We all froze and turned to gape as the professor who, despite all the noise, did not once look up from the textbook that he was quoting from. Shrugging, we returned to our battle, this time with the whole class involved.

*~*~*~*

Professor McGonagall tapped her foot impatiently. I tried not to smile.

"I'll ask you again. Potter, Black, what were you doing out of bed tonight?" Sirius and I put on our best innocent looks.

"Neither of us could fall asleep, Professor. We were anxious about the exams, so I suggested that we go for a short walk to clear our heads." In truth, we had been returning from adding more daisy roots to the Animagus Potion, which was simmering away in an abandoned broom closet on the fifth floor, but McGonagall wasn't to know that. She fixed us with her piercing stare, as if trying to read our minds. Sirius smiled sweetly.

"I'm sorry if you thought we were causing trouble." He grinned slightly.

"We'd never do anything like that, honest," I added, quickly suppressing a smirk. The professor frowned.

"Well, there is no proof that you were causing trouble…" she shot us a stern glance, "But you were still out of bed, and that is firmly forbidden. Five points from Gryffindor, and I do not want to see you out of bed again." We jumped up and headed for the hallway. "One more thing." We turned. "If I do find out that you've been causing any mischief…" She raised her eyebrows as we grinned at her, darting out of the door. We ran back to the portrait hole. The Fat Lady gave us a stern look.

"What have you two been doing out of bed?" 

"Nothing important. Chocolate Frog." We climbed through the portrait hole. Someone cleared their throat.

"About time you showed up." I froze as I saw a figure lounging in a chair by the fire. It was Lily. She looked suspiciously at me. I laughed uncomfortably. "Er, Lily, what are you doing up this late?" 

Sirius bit his lip as a second person emerged from the shadows. "Sirius! We want to know why you two have been sneaking around every night. Remus too." Sarah narrowed her eyes. "Well? Aren't you going to say anything?"

"Erm… I'm sorry?" His sheepish smile quickly disappeared as he saw the look on her face. "What are you so mad at us about, anyway?" 

Lily tapped her foot, her bright green eyes flashing. "It's not so much that you've been sneaking out that bothers us, it's just that you won't tell us what you've been doing." She turned to face me, a slightly hurt look on her face. "I thought you could tell me anything." I melted.

"I'm so sorry, Lily, but I can't tell you this. It's not my fault; I would if I could! But it's Remus' own private business…" Lily cast a glance over at Sarah, who was nose to nose with Sirius, her dark brown eyes narrowed. They seemed to be engaged in a staring contest of some sort. Sirius' eyes were open wide, gazing into his girlfriend's. Sarah bit her lip, looking as if she wanted desperately to laugh. Finally, she broke down and burst out laughing. Sirius half smirked, half-grinned and grabbed her, swinging her around. 

"You lose! You lose!" They collapsed on the floor, both laughing uncontrollably. Lily's gaze softened as she turned to me and rolled her eyes, though she was grinning. 

"Those two are crazy…" Sarah and Sirius rolled behind a wide couch with a dull thump. There were some whispers, a few short giggles from Sarah, and then silence. I looked at Lily, raising my eyebrows suggestively. "Shall we?" 

Lily smirked. "We shall." She moved closer to me and laid her head on my shoulder. I wrapped my right arm around her and pulled her to a dark corner of the room.

"Does this mean you forgive me?" I asked as she settled into my embrace.

"Reckon it does…" Any further conversation was cut short as our lips found each other's.

*~*~*~*

"Can you believe we've already finished our first year here?" Remus asked as we boarded the Hogwarts Express to return home for the summer holidays. Mary sighed. She had recently broken up with her sort-of boyfriend, Robert Bell, having found him in a passionate embrace with a black-haired Ravenclaw 2nd year. Remus patted her arm comfortingly as she gazed plaintively out the window at the bustling station. Peter settled himself in a corner to feel sorry for himself. Exams had come and gone in a flurry of stress and harried nerves. To my surprise, I had come out top of the class alongside Lily and Sirius, closely followed by Remus and Sarah. The only person in our little gang to come off with barely adequate marks was Peter. Carrie, Liz, and Mary had all scored very highly in all subjects. Snape, Sirius had been disappointed to find out, had passed all subjects, scoring extremely high in Potions. We were now off to a relaxing summer at home. I was a bit apprehensive of my mother's reaction to the detentions I had accumulated- she had warned me of severe consequences if she received any more owls home from Professor McGonagall. I was not too worried, however; Mum tended to fail to follow up on her threats. As the train chugged through the green countryside, I leaned back in my seat. Remus was already starting on his homework. I noticed that he was sitting quite close to Mary, explaining to her the differences between two different types of magical plants. Sirius and Sarah were nested in a corner involved in a game of Exploding Snap. As I watched, Sirius yelped as the deck exploded, nearly singing his eyebrows. Sarah, laughing hysterically, tried to comfort him and stifle her giggles at the same time. Carrie had trotted off along the corridor with Patrick just after the train had left. Mary and Liz were making plans to go to some sort of Muggle camp together.

"We'll have so much fun! Sailing is a blast, and there aren't that many campers there so you can…" Confused, I turned away and glanced at Lily, who looked troubled.

"What's wrong?" She looked at me, her deep emerald eyes filled with sorrow.

"I was just thinking that my holidays aren't going to be as fun as everyone else's. My sister Petunia hates me now, and she's sure to have her horrid boyfriend Vernon Dursley over all the time…They so enjoy making fun of me." I closed my arms protectively around her shoulders.

"Maybe I'll come visit you if you like. We can show your sister who's better, anyway." Lily smiled. We gazed out the window at the rapidly moving countryside. I sighed. Nothing else mattered to me at that moment except the person wrapped in my arms, loving me simply for me.

*~*~*~*

A/N: Sorry, this chapter was mostly fluff. Tell me, do you think I should extend this series for the whole seven years at Hogwarts? That might make it kinda long…

Disclaimer: Okay, okay, I own nothing except the plot line. Has anyone seen the movie trailer? The music was kinda creepy, but basically the movie looks like it'll be pretty cool as long as damn WB doesn't cut out too many of the important parts…


	6. Stag, Dog, and Rat

A/N: This part skips to when "our faithful Marauders" plus Lily, Sarah, Carrie, Liz, and Mary are in their fourth year

A/N: This part skips to when "our faithful Marauders" plus Lily, Sarah, Carrie, Liz, and Mary are in their fifth year. This is because I want to get to the part where the guys become Animagi as soon as possible, and I am quickly running out of ideas. So bear with me, the chapters will get better as I get to the more interesting parts of the story.

****

Chapter Theme Music (So I don't have to write any more damn songfics!):

Evan and Jaron's "Crazy for this Girl"

Dedication(s): To Alyssa (because of the music!), Carrie (my inspiration/muse), Liz (Go anti-PFS! Except by the time I put this up, it'll be over…), and "~Emily~" (she sent me my first email from a reader! I was so excited!)

*~*~*~*

"James!" I spun around, grinning as Lily ran into my arms. "James! How were your holidays?" I smiled, kissing her softly on the neck.

"Same as usual, Lils. I trust you haven't blown Petunia up yet?" Lily grimaced at me. 

"No, unfortunately not." We were entering our fifth year at Hogwarts. The years were passing in an alarming blur; it seemed like only yesterday that we had been first years, giggling over our own intelligence as we snuck around the school after hours, skillfully evading Filch and the Professors. Not that we didn't still do that. The Animagus plan was still in full swing. Remus had estimated that the potion would be finished by the end of September. All summer I had been practically giddy with anticipation of finally becoming able to change into an animal at will. My mother had become especially exasperated with me when I had failed to be appointed a prefect. Speaking of prefects… I noticed Lily trying to surreptitiously pin a shiny badge onto her shirt. I held her an arm's length away from me so I could see what it was. Unfortunately for Lily, Sirius realized before I did. "A prefect! My dear Lily, that's simply spectacular! How marvelous…" 

I shoved him, though I was quite in shock myself. "Lily? Why didn't you tell me?" 

She shifted uncomfortably. "Well… I thought you might be disappointed… you know, like I was going over to "the enemy" or something…" 

Deciding to be supportive, I scoffed. "Whatever would make you think that?" She raised her eyebrows in typical Lily-fashion.

"Maybe because over the summer you said (and I quote) 'To become a prefect would be to go over to the enemy!'" I smiled, remembering. Lily's look shook me out of my reverie.

"Er, well… I didn't mean it about you, I meant for ME to become a prefect would be to go over to the enemy. However, I think it's perfectly fine for YOU to be a prefect…" Sirius smirked.

"What he means is, get us busted and you don't get anything…" I punched him. Hard. Lily, however, frowned.

"I hope you know that your, er, position with me does not let you off the hook for rule breaking…" She was cut off as Sarah skipped over, looking ecstatic. She pecked Sirius on the cheek.

"Hey everyone! Guess what?" Sirius groaned.

"Don't tell me. You've been appointed a prefect also." She shot him a grin.

"How'd you know?" Lily, however, was jumping up and down excitedly.

"Oh my gosh! Me too! I was gonna owl you to tell you but I didn't want to disappoint you if you didn't get it and now this year is gonna be so awesome, I can't wait until…" She and Sarah, chattering excitedly, rushed off to find some other prefects. Sirius grimaced.

"Two of our number, over to the dark side." I smiled at him.

"Come on, it won't be so bad. Plus, we have you-know-what to look forward to…" Sirius brightened.

"Oh yeah! I decided what animal I want to be. I even got the hair." He retrieved a long black hair from a capsule in his pocket. "There was this huge black dog wandering around our house a couple weeks ago, and he left a bunch of these lying on our front stoop." I grinned as a vision of a huge, shaggy Sirius romped through my imagination. "Hey, did you decide what you want to be?" I shrugged. 

"I haven't really given it too much thought. Though it might be cool to be something big… maybe a stag or similar…" Sirius smiled. 

"Cool. James as Prongs." I grinned again. 

"I like the sound of that. Prongs… and you can be Padfoot." Sirius raised his eyebrows.

"Padfoot?" I shrugged.

"You know, dogs have padded feet… well, it's better than Smelly or Shaggy or something." He shrugged.

"I suppose." Remus chose that moment to rush over in flight from his mother, who was brandishing a bottle of aspirin.

"Muuum! I'm fine!" He ducked behind me as she approached us.

"Darling…" He winced. "Darling… I don't want you to be sick on the first day of term." He groaned.

"Mum! I'm not sick! Now leave me alone!" She stalked away looking quite put off. Remus breathed a sigh of relief.

"You don't know how happy I am to get away from her! All summer she kept trying to cram pills and antidotes and the like down my throat. Stuff she buys of the WWN shopping channel and those vending carts in Diagon Alley… Rubbish. I can't stand it!" Sirius gave him a sympathetic glance.

"Hey Moony, it's all right. Pretty soon we'll all be out with you at 'that time'. We can even plan adventures! Hmm… where should we go first?" I nudged him.

"Let's not count our chickens before they hatch, Padfoot." Remus looked confused.

"What's this? Padfoot?" I smiled at him.

"We've decided you're not to be the only one with a nickname, Moony. Sirius has christened me 'Prongs' due to the fact that I think I want to become a stag as an Animagus. Therefore, I have decided that we will call our dear friend 'Padfoot', as he has procured a hair from a large black dog." Remus laughed.

"That's great, guys, but aren't you forgetting something?" I shrugged. 

"Are we?" Remus rolled his eyes.

"Peter. He's sure to have a tantrum when he finds that we all have nicknames and he doesn't." This was true; Peter had proved to be a bit of a brat over the past few years, though 80 percent of the time his intentions were generally good. Sirius groaned.

"I'd forgotten HE was in on this too." As if prompted, Peter pranced over at this moment and pulled me by my sleeve towards the train.

"Look James, I've reserved us our own compartment!" He looked up at me as if for approval. I sighed. He acted more like a ten-year-old than a fifteen-year-old.

*~*~*~*

Lily was bouncing on my bed. I sighed and pried my eyes open.

"Happy birthday, sleepyhead!" she chirped, bending down to kiss me on the cheek. I groaned.

"Shouldn't you be 'setting a good example for the younger students'?" I asked wryly, as she laid back and settled her head on my shoulder. Sirius, coming in from his shower, grinned at the sight of Lily lying on the bed next to me.

"Oooh! Prongs and Lily… getting it on…" I threw my pillow at him.

"Not funny. Besides…" Smirking, I tossed my head towards his bed where Sarah was curled up, snoring lightly. "How do you explain that?" Lily elbowed me.

"Silly, I dragged her out of bed and brought her here with me. She _was_ awake…"

Sarah opened her eyes sleepily. "What? What?" 

Sirius tackled her. "Aha!" 

There was a short scuffle as Sarah, shrieking with laughter, tried to disentangle herself from her boyfriend and the blanket. She rolled off onto the floor with a thud.

"Ouch." Lily and I smiled, shrugging; we had long since given up trying to figure out our best friends' relationship. At this moment, Remus entered, leading Mary, Peter, Liz, and Carrie, all bearing birthday presents. 

HALF AN HOUR LATER…

"Phew." The only presents left for me to open were the ones from Lily and my parents. Lily handed me a small box wrapped in gold paper. She grinned slightly as I unwrapped it. Inside was a small crystal figurine of a stag. Like all other wizard art, it was moving. As I held it in my palm, it pranced around, nuzzling my fingers. I looked up at her.

"It's beautiful, Lily. But why a stag?" She grinned even wider.

"Come on. Prongs? It wasn't that hard to figure out." I was awestruck. I wasn't sure if she knew about the Animagi Potion, but she had figured out that I was planning something involving a stag. We gazed into each other's eyes for a moment, but then I turned to open my parents' gift. It was a soft package wrapped in purple tissue paper. Figuring it was clothes, I pulled the paper away. Something made of silvery-blue, translucent material slid to the floor. A note fluttered down. I reached for it.

James-  __

Happy birthday. Use this well.

-Mum and Dad 

P.S. Don't get into trouble. -Mum

Lily had picked up the garment.

"It's a cloak…" she said, mystified. Reaching for it, I turned it over and over in my hands. It felt something like water woven into fabric, slippery and fluid. I grinned and threw it around my shoulders.

"So, does this make me look dashing or what?" I asked, turning to Lily. But she didn't answer, just stood with her mouth open and her eyes wide. I turned to Sirius. "What's her problem? Doesn't flatter me?" But Sirius too just gaped in frozen awe. "What is up with all of you?" I finally turned to the mirror and looked at my reflection. What I saw made my stomach turn somersaults. Everything from my neck down was completely invisible. Staring, I took an involuntary step backwards. With a little thrill of horror, I pulled off the cloak and watched myself reappear. As I did, Liz spoke up in barely more than a whisper.

"It's an Invisibility Cloak." We all spun around to look at her.

"Are you sure?" She nodded.

"Yeah. I saw one in a textbook when I was researching Concealment Charms last year. It looked just like that." I recovered from my shock.

"This will come in very handy." I grinned at Sirius and Remus.

*****

Sarah looked up, pushing Sirius' face away from her neck rather roughly.

" What did you say?" I grinned.

"Oh, nothing important. Just that McGonagall's called an emergency prefect meeting. She said something about a student riot down in the dungeons, but I could have heard wrong…" Sarah leapt up, accidentally elbowing Sirius in the chest.

"Oof." Sirius put on his saddest puppy-dog face. She turned apologetically.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Siri! I'll be back soon, I promise, and we can get back to, er, things…" She gave him a quick kiss and dashed away, pulling Lily after her. Remus, from his position in a chair nearby, raised his eyebrows.

"Riot, huh? Sounds serious." I grinned at him.

"Yeah, won't they be surprised when they show up and McGonagall doesn't know why…" Sirius snorted.

"Don't tell me. You made the whole thing up." I grinned even wider. "You mean you interrupted me and my girlfriend for A JOKE?" I smiled slyly. 

"Of course not. I've just been to check on the potion. It's ready." The effect was instantaneous. Remus and Sirius sprang out of their chairs. Peter, eavesdropping from behind the couch, jumped out, looking elated. 

"Yay! Now we get to become Anim-" I covered his mouth quickly.

"Shhh! It's meant to be a secret, remember?" He nodded, his eyes wide. "Good. Now let's go." I threw the four Cloak over the four of us and we slipped silently out of the common room and down the silent corridors. Eventually we reached the old broom closet on the fifth floor, where our painstakingly prepared Animagi Potion had been simmering since our first year. It was a miracle that no one had found out about it after four years. Sirius and I had been researching the incantation over most of the past year, and had finally finished it and written the entire verse down. There were three goblets on the shelf above the caldron. Trembling with excitement, Sirius reached for one with shaking hands and carefully filled it to the brim with the steaming potion. He dropped the long, black hair in, and we watched as it fizzled, turning a deep violet colour. I filled my goblet next. Remus had somehow managed to obtain powdered stag antler from somewhere, and I added a pinch of it to my goblet. The potion hissed, turning a bright emerald hue. We turned to Peter, who was clumsily attempting to ladle some potion into his goblet. Remus hurried to pour for him. We waited expectantly as he stared at it.

"Well? Where's your hair or whatever?" asked Sirius impatiently. Peter bit his lip.

"I- I forgot to get one-" he whispered. Sirius looked enraged.

"You mean we worked for four years on this potion, and you forget the most important ingredient?!?" I touched his arm.

"It's alright, Sirius," I soothed, looking around. "Look, Peter has some hairs from his rat on his robes. He can use one of them." Sirius glared.

"All right then, hurry up." Peter quickly dropped one long grey hair into his cup. I handed the parchment with the incantation to Remus. He motioned us to an empty classroom nearby.

"We'd better do this in here, just in case…" He began to read, and we repeated his words.

"_Lli wym ta lamina na emoce bot em timre pesa elp, gniebym fot raeh ethat si lamina siht, lamina nae moce bot erise di_…." The incantation was very long and tiring. Twice Peter messed up and we had to go back and start over again. Sirius was almost shaking with anticipation. Finally we managed to get all the way through without any mess-ups. Remus looked at the list that we had made. 

"Next you have to drink the potion." Sirius looked at me.

"You first, Prongs." He grinned. "I want to make sure it isn't poisoned before I drink mine." I snorted.

"Thanks a lot." I held up the goblet. "Cheers." In one motion I poured the entire contents down my throat. I almost gagged as I felt something inside of the deepest part of my being rearrange and form. Sinking to the floor, I held my head to my knees. After a moment, the sensation passed and I stood, shaking slightly. Sirius, Remus, and Peter were looking at me, their eyes wide with anticipation. 

"Well?" Remus whispered. I smiled shakily.

"It worked, I think." Sirius barely concealed his whoop of delight and wasted no time in gulping his potion down. Peter hesitantly followed. Observing their near identical expressions of nausea, I knew that they were experiencing the same feelings that I had. After a few moments, both straightened shakily.

"Now what?" asked Sirius. I looked at Remus, who smiled slightly. 

"Now you try it out."

A/N: Hehe, a sort of cliffhanger! Well not really, but still, you can't blame me for trying.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything or anyone except for Sarah, Liz, Carrie, Mary… and any other unrecognizable characters that aren't in the books.

__


	7. 

It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, __

***

Theme Music – "When You Believe", Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston

***

__

Dedications: To Emily (for the song), to Liz (now you can stop bugging me), and to Tent 1 (I wish I could be there with you guys this summer). Peace.

***

__

"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams…"

Willy Wonka, **Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory**

***

"Now what?" I asked, looking at Remus. He smiled slightly.

"Now you try it out." I stared at him. I had almost forgotten the point of the whole tiresome four-year-long process, which was, of course, to become able to turn into an animal at will. If the potion didn't work… after the first transformation, Sirius, Peter and I would be stuck in our animal forms for the rest of our lives. Sirius stood a bit taller in the dim room, a look of firm resolve on his features.

"I'll go first." 

"N-no, I will." Remus, Sirius and I spun to gape in surprise at Peter, who was shivering slightly. After a moment, I shook my head.

"No, it has to be me. This was my idea, you two shouldn't have to live the rest of your lives that way if it goes wrong…" 

"No, Prongs, you shouldn't have to do this alone…" Sirius looked indignant.

"Ahem." We looked at Remus. "Why don't you all three go at the same time?" Of course, it was the only fair thing to do… we stood inn a triangle, facing each other. With firm resolution, I looked at my friends. Sirius looked recklessly determined an expression that he wore often. Peter was doing his best to look brave, though his quaking knees gave him away. Remus, standing back slightly in the shadows, looked both hopeful and anxious. I realized how hard it would be for him if anything happened to the three of us. I had long since suspected that we were his first and only true friends. It wasn't something that was hard to believe, considering the fact that werewolves were hated and mistrusted by most of the magical community. The girls accepted Remus too, of course, but they didn't know he was a werewolf. Remus stepped towards us, holding the parchment instructions.

"Concentrate on your animal. See it in your mind; visualize yourself turning into it. When you're ready and you can see it clearly, relax and concentrate on changing."

I closed my eyes and imagined myself turning into a majestic deep-brown stag, with pale antlers and four slim hoofed feet… I shut everything out and concentrated. Very slowly, I felt myself changing. From somewhere seemingly far away, I heard Remus gasp. When I opened my eyes, the world seemed different. I was seeing things from a few feet lower than I was used to. The colors seemed different too, somehow. Looking around me, I saw the form of a huge, shaggy black dog sitting next to me, it's tongue lolling out in a sort of doggie-smirk. Sirius. There were two other humans in the room. One was jumping up and down excitedly, while the other was quivering, their eyes squeezed tightly shut. Peter hadn't been able to transform. Sighing silently, I concentrated on turning back into my human form. When I opened my eyes again, I was human. Remus whooped as Sirius transformed back also. Peter opened his eyes, where I could see tears forming.

"I can't do it!" he quavered. "I'm j-j-just too stupid and slow to turn into an Animagus!" 

I looked over Peter's quivering form to where I could see a smirk beginning to form on Sirius' lips. Shooting him a warning glare, I awkwardly patted Peter on the back. "It's okay Peter, Sirius and Remus and I will help you. It's not that hard, all you need to do is relax and concentrate on transforming into a rat." Remus nodded.

"Of course we will. Now, try it again?" Peter looked up, wiped his eyes on his robe sleeve, and nodded. "Right then, try to imagine yourself turning into a rat. Can you see that?" Peter stood with his eyes closed for a long moment before nodding. "Now all you have to do is keep repeating that sequence over and over in your mind."

"Try to relax," I added helpfully. Peter took a deep breath and concentrated. In a few seconds, a grey rat was standing in his place.

***

For the next several weeks, the four of us were in extremely high spirits. Peter scampered around, immensely proud of himself (we had warned him several times not to tell anyone about our feat). Sirius had spurred his pranks on the Slytherins and faculty to newer and greater heights (with me usually along for the ride). I felt like I was walking on clouds. The thing that we had been working on for close to five years had finally been accomplished. A weight felt as though it had been lifted from my shoulders. Remus' usual pallid profile had taken a healthier glow. He had even asked Mary to be his girlfriend, startling all of us. We had all shared a suspicion that he liked her, but had never dreamed that he would be so bold as to ask her out. But there was something on the near horizon that was brightening our already over-bright attitudes. The full moon was quickly approaching. The remaining days passed in a blur, until finally, at long last, we were anxiously lying in bed, waiting for the other occupants of our dormitory to fall asleep. As soon as we heard Patrick's soft snores, Sirius leapt nimbly up, dressed in full robes over his pajamas. I leaned over and yanked on my trainers. Peter tried to jump up, but proceeded to entangle himself in the bedclothes. 

"Shhh!" Sirius hissed. I helped Peter to disentangle himself before he woke up the others. "Come on!" As an afterthought, I opened my trunk and pulled out my Invisibility Cloak before hurrying after Sirius, pulling Peter with me. 

~

"Moony?" I whispered. We had just made it past the Whomping Willow and into a dark, damp passageway. My voice echoed eerily. There was no sign of Remus. From somewhere in front of us, there was a scuffling noise. Elbowing Sirius, I carefully folded the cloak, placed it in my pocket, and transformed. It was the most wonderful feeling in the world, as if I had left all of my cares with my human form. There was movement beside me, and I sensed the presence of two other animals. Sirius, of course, and quite miraculously, Peter. Bowing my antlered head, I started off at a trot down the passage. Sirius was padding next to me, Peter perched on his back. We had agreed to call Peter "Wormtail". I hadn't really liked the name, but it was Peter's idea (I felt sorry for him, as he didn't have a nickname like the rest of us). Once we reached the passage, I hesitated. What if this didn't work? What if Remus savaged all of us, unable to control his werewolf nature? I remembered that it was a risk that we had all taken, in exchange for Remus' happiness. Carefully, I nudged the door open. From a dark corner of the ravaged room before me, there was a deep growl. The werewolf stalked into the pale light. I stood taller, Sirius raising his hackles menacingly. For a moment we sat, staring at each other. Remus shook his head vigorously, as if fighting an internal struggle. We watched, entranced. Finally he sat back, his head cocked to one side. Sirius let out a bark and ran playfully over to Remus. For a moment, the werewolf was still. His tail began slowly to wag, and I pawed the floor with my hoof in happiness. We had succeeded, everything had gone as planned… now the adventures could begin. With a meaningful glance back at Remus, I set off at a run back down the passage. They followed me, panting to keep up. I reached the open end of the passage. Peter jumped off of Sirius' back and touched the knot of the tree, freezing it as we had carefully instructed him. Sirius immediately started off for the forest. I followed, but something held me back. I looked back at the Willow. Moony was standing there on the threshold, unmoving. I started back, nodding at him encouragingly. He tentatively stepped forward, looking unsure. From the edge of the forest, Sirius howled impatiently. Decidedly, Remus howled back and set off at a run towards him. Grinning inwardly, I tossed my head and cantered after them. We disappeared into the forest, chasing after each other playfully. And the Marauders were born.

~

"Urgh…" groaned Sirius. We were at breakfast, the morning after our first "adventure". I yawned widely as Peter stumbled in. 

"It's too early!" he moaned, rubbing his eyes. Remus, having just arrived from the hospital wing, alone looked chipper (and awake). 

"You get used to it," he laughed, seeing our simultaneous yawns. 

"We might have stayed out a bit too late," admitted Sirius reluctantly. Sarah, sitting down next to him, looked curious. 

"Were you out last night?" She shot an accusing look at him. He smiled sheepishly.

"Erm… we were practicing transfiguration in the library with Peter. Think we let it go on a bit too long, I was saying." Sarah looked unconvinced, but didn't say anything more, as Mary sat down across from her to show her a picture that she had drawn of Snape crossdressing. They collapsed in giggles. Lily came over. 

"What's so funny?" she asked, looking curiously at her two friends. They just shook their heads, unable to speak. Lily shrugged and sat down next to me, buttering a piece of toast. I noticed Patrick McConahey, Carrie's boyfriend of four years, standing over at the Ravenclaw table talking to a pretty girl with long brown hair. I recognized her as Meagan Roudin, a (rather bossy) witch in our year. She was batting her eyes and smiling up into Patrick's face in an obvious attempt at flirting. Patrick was grinning back at her, laughing at something that she had just said. As I watched, Meagan snuggled close to Patrick, who gave her a surprised look but didn't pull away. I averted my gaze, not wanting to see any more. I wasn't as close as close to Carrie as Lily or Sarah, but I still didn't want to see her get her. While wondering if I should tell anyone about what I had just seen, the bell rang to signal the beginning of classes for the day. As I pushed past a group of Second Years on my way to Ancient Runes with Sirius and Sarah, I wondered why things seemed to be changing between all of us. We were all growing up, no matter how much we tried to cling to the past.

~ 

Liz nudged me. "Hello? Earth to James?" I looked up, startled. We were working in partners in Charms, practicing Conjuring. Professor Flitwick had instructed us each to conjure a small object, such as a marble or toothpick. It was my turn to have a go at it. I concentrated on drawing a snitch out of thin air with my wand. A sudden breeze from the open window caused our notes to scatter, making me lose my focus. The result was a rather deformed copper-coloured Snitch with only one wing. Liz sighed. My mind was on other matters. "Maybe that was too big. Try a toothpick." I tried concentrating on conjuring a match, but I couldn't focus. 

"Sorry, Liz, I just can't get the hang of this! You try." Raising her wand, Liz swiftly conjured a clear blue marble, which she dropped into my outstretched palm. 

"See? It's not so hard." I sighed. Charms were not my best subject. I glanced over at Lily, who was working with Remus. She had seemed to have gotten the hang of conjuring small things and had moved on to larger objects. As I watched, she conjured a perfect footstool, which she placed carefully under her desk and propped her feet up on. She looked over and grinned with superiority. Liz had lost interest in my attempts at a toothpick and had begun scrawling on her notes. 

"So?" I asked, trying to make it look as if we were working. "Are you and Alex still an item?" She grinned dreamily at me.

"Yeah, he's terrific, really sweet. Except he studies a bit too much for my liking… I guess that's just the way Ravenclaws are. But it doesn't bother me." She fiddled with a silver ring on her finger. 

"What's that?" She smiled with an air of content.

"It's a promise ring, Alex gave it to me during the summer holidays. He said he wants to marry me someday." She looked up quickly. "Oops, I shouldn't have told you that, we agreed to keep it a surprise. Don't tell anyone I told you." I grinned.

"Don't worry, your secret is safe with me." I began to wonder; what would Lily say if I asked her to marry me? I knew that I would never love anyone else, that I would die before I let anyone harm her… I decided to wait a few years, until we were out of Hogwarts, before I made any decisions. A loud bang interrupted my thoughts. Sarah, who had the misfortune of being paired with Peter, began waving her parchment to clear the smoke-filled air. Our tiny professor hurried over as Sarah, whose eyelashes were singed, sighed and shook her head despairingly.

~

"Rough day?" Sirius pushed his hair out of his eyes and grinned at me as I collapsed on my four-poster.

"Very stressful, is all. I could use a massage right now," I stretched out and closed my eyes. "All I want to do is sleep and forget all my problems." Unfortunately, nothing is that simple.

__

"Lily, will you marry me?" Lily looked down at me.

"Oh James, didn't I tell you? I've decided to run away with the wizard circus. I'm involved with the trapeze artist." I screamed as a man clad in spandex wrapped his arms around her. 

"Lily darling, we've got to go. Tell this little boy to depart immediately." I reached up to cuff him one…

"Argh!" I fell off my bed. Sirius stirred. 

"James?" he asked sleepily. I groaned.

"Go back to sleep." I clambered back up and rubbed my temples. Must be the hormones.

~

A/N: Mostly fluff, but this was an important part. On a more personal note: To Liz- Ha ha! See, now you know who's getting hitched! Wheehee, reviews please. P.S.- Does anyone know a good name for a fic about the Founders? I'm stuck.

Disclaimer: I don't own any Potterverse characters.


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